


One Day

by idrilhadhafang



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Ambiguous/Open Ending, Angst, M/M, Past Torture, Post-Star Wars: The Last Jedi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-28
Updated: 2019-01-28
Packaged: 2019-10-17 23:42:53
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 826
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17570180
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/idrilhadhafang/pseuds/idrilhadhafang
Summary: A capture does not go the way Kylo thinks.





	One Day

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: Locked In
> 
> Disclaimer: I own nothing.

The last time that Kylo had captured Poe Dameron, he’d tortured him. That he couldn’t deny. And now, seeing him before him, Kylo couldn’t help but think back to that moment, though Poe wasn’t bruised and bloody like he was previously. Last time, Kylo Ren had had no control. Now he did.   
  
Hux was away. Now, Kylo could speak with Poe. It was as he entered, though, that the door closed behind him with a strange sort of sound that was almost like it had locked. And investigating...  
  
Yes. He had been good as locked in.   
  
Perhaps he wasn’t as in control as he thought.   
  
He was grateful, at least, for the protection that the helmet gave him — shielding his face once more from the outside world. Poe looked up at him, and Kylo could feel a whole mixture of emotions coming from him — anger, grief, desire, everything. He didn’t deserve this mixture of emotions, he truly didn’t.   
  
“You changed your helmet.” Poe said.   
  
“And?” Was that the best Poe could say, after all this time?   
  
“You don’t really need it,” Poe said. “Really. I saw who you were on Crait.”  
  
“That man is gone.”  
  
“Then can I see who’s taken his place?”  
  
Silence. There were too many reasons not to remove the mask. Feeling naked, feeling powerless — as powerless as he had been his whole life.   
  
There were too many reasons to do so.   
  
Slowly, Kylo removed the mask, and watched as Poe took him in. He saw Poe’s eyes briefly glide across the scar where Rey had slashed him, before moving to the rest of his face.   
  
“You still look like him. You still are him.”  
  
Kylo snorted. “Don’t be absurd.”  
  
“You still live.”  
  
“I became better.”  
  
“I don’t want that.”  
  
Kylo sighed. “Everything I did, I did for you. All of it.”  
  
Poe seemed to be taking it in, trying to comprehend. Then, “I didn’t want that.”  
  
“Why?”  
  
“Because I loved you, Ben!”  
  
Silence. The words hung in the air. Kylo had a feeling already that it was something that Poe never, ever meant to say. He could see Poe looking away, clearly ashamed of what he’d said, or at least looking away as much as he could considering he was locked in.   
  
They were both good as prisoners, really. Prisoners together.   
  
“You...” Kylo tried to form words. Already it was difficult.   
  
“It doesn’t matter. You’re not capable of it. You’re just empty.”  
  
“Maybe I am,” Kylo said. It seemed that everyone thought of him as a monster at the moment, even Poe. Why did that hurt, he couldn’t help but wonder. Why did that feel like a vibroblade had cut into his heart?   
  
Kylo continued. “And I don’t care.”  
  
It was a good thing that he had a chair that he could sit on across from Poe. He was about to turn around when Poe said, “What happened to you anyway? I don’t recall Ben Solo doing half the things you did.”  
  
“You think that’s relevant?”  
  
“Ben wouldn’t have gutted his own father with a lightsaber.”  
  
Kylo paused. He could still remember that day on the bridge too well. Wanting to come home, and yet feeling unworthy. Unwanted.   
  
Poe continued. “Ben wouldn’t have done half the things you did.”  
  
“Ben was weak. That’s why he didn’t do them.”  
  
Except that wasn’t true and was true at the same time.   
  
“No. No, he wasn’t.”  
  
“You didn’t know him long enough.” That boy, shivering in the dark, wondering when the voice would come again. That boy, trying to survive his uncle’s verbal and emotional pummelings and humiliations. That man, trying to be good enough under Snoke and never succeeding.   
  
“I knew enough. I knew he was a good person.”  
  
“Don’t be absurd.”  
  
“No, I knew. I really did know. And I’m not giving up on that. I know there’s a part of you that still believes in doing good, that still believes in so much, and I’m not letting it go.”  
  
Kylo swallowed. “It’s too late.”  
  
“It never was. There’s still a chance for you.”  
  
Kylo doubted it. Even the idea of a chance, for someone like him, was far too wonderful to be logical.   
  
And yet...  
  
“For you, I’ll do it.” And it was the closest way Kylo could get to saying how he really felt.   
  
***  
Getting the alternate exit open was a challenge, but not the rest. As Supreme Leader, the First Order didn’t even notice him when he was taking Poe down the hallways. They reached the hangar bay and Kylo said, “This is where we part ways.”  
  
“We don’t — ”  
  
“You can be saved. Not me. I am...beyond redemption. Even my own mother thinks so.”  
  
“She hasn’t seen what you’ve done.”  
  
“I still have work to do. But one day...one day, when I’m finished, I’ll come home with you. I promise.”  
  
And even that was vague. But home...home would be wherever Poe was, and that was a promise. 


End file.
